1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing method, and an information processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image search techniques are known in which features are extracted from, for example, a captured image obtained by being captured by a camera, and a pre-registered image group is searched for an image having many similar features. Image search systems are known that use such image search techniques to register images in certain photographs or printed materials in a database in association with various kinds of electronic data, to use a captured image obtained by capturing one of the photographs or the printed materials to search this database for a similar image, and to present linkage information associated with the similar image (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2014-010723).
Conventionally, the search for a registered image has not been managed for each person/organization (for example, for each business operator) who has registered the image. As a result, if a plurality of business operators have registered images having portions similar to one another, a problem occurs that the image search based on the captured image can result in a different result from that intended by a business operator who has registered the image. A problem also occurs that the search is difficult to be controlled according to the state of contract with the business operator on use of the image search system.